An Odd Pair Backs Rights Nominee

Published: November 13, 1997

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12—
So far, backing for Bill Lann Lee, the Los Angeles lawyer who is fighting an uphill battle to become the Justice Department's top civil rights enforcement official, has come from a variety of groups. But the idea of the nomination's making strange bedfellows reached a new level today.

Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, and James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, today sent a jointly signed letter to a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Mr. Lee.

''Though opposition to Mr. Lee has emerged over his views on affirmative action, we strongly believe that it is unfair for him to be judged on that basis alone,'' said the letter to Senator Spencer Abraham, a Michigan Republican who sits on the committee.

Though he said he would vote against Mr. Lee, Mr. Abraham, an Arab American, has been the subject of intense lobbying by several groups, including Arab American organizations in his home state, to try to persuade him to change his mind.

The letter represents one of the few times that Mr. Zogby's group has taken the same position with one of the country's largest Jewish organizations. In the past the two organizations have bitterly disagreed, generally over United States policy in the Middle East.

In their letter, the two men urged Mr. Abraham to vote to confirm Mr. Lee when the full committee meets on Thursday.

''In the event of a tie vote in the committee, we very much hope you would support allowing the nomination to come before the full Senate,'' they wrote.